We’re leaving on a jet plane…….

7 April 2007

Feeling a little heavy headed from the night before we set about the task of packing our backpacks, which have served us incredibly well over the past 11 months, for the the very last time (this trip 😉 ).

Our flight back to the UK was not leaving until midnight so we had one final day in Bangkok which had planned to spend by the pool desperately working on the tan before returning to the much cooler climate of the UK and all our pastey white family and friends 😉 .
Unfortunately the sky in Bangkok was grey which pulled the plug on our plans so we did the next best thing and headed off for a curry and then for a relaxing massage. We then headed back to Patpong market to get a couple of last minute souvenirs before we said our farewells to Bangkok and made our way to the airport.

The midnight flight home was perfect timing for us as we were ready to sleep and sleep we did – almost the full twelve hours of the flight before we arrived an hour late at London Heathrow where we were to be met by my parents. Knowing they were in the same building as us left me kiddy as a five year old at Christmas however my excitement was prolonged as our bags were one of the last to come off the plane.

As we walked through customs I could see my Dad (who I hadn’t seen in 11 months) behind a cam-corder recording our entry and only after hugging him I realised there was no sign of mum. Looking around for her I clocked her stood further along next to two other surprise familiar faces – Nic and Steve (Chris’s sister and her husband who had visited us in Oz)- and the all important (and now obligatory – well for us!) sign with our names on. As it turned out they were spending their first wedding anniversary in London and thought they would drop by (at 6am in the morning!).

After exchanging hugs with my mum who apparently had been swinging from the railings for the past two hours giddy with excitement (yep Nic – that clearly is where I get it from), and after various photos and a little of the camcorder commentary for which my Dad is becoming infamous (in his own special way!!!!) we decided it would be rude not to have a pint together….well the Geordies had a pint whilst us ‘civilised southerners’ had orange juice 😉

Sadly then it was time to say goodbye to Nic and Steve, if only for a few days, as we set of for Kent and more family reunions with my Grandma brother, Julie, Maxwell and the new addition to the family which we were desperate to meet – Amelie.

After three days in Kent we headed up the M1 via our home in Leeds to Newcastle to see the other side of the family and to plenty more hugs, present giving, food and wine.

So here we are – back to our reality. The past eleven months has been the best eleven months of our lives (so far!) and the trip was definately the best decision (obviously after getting engaged Chris!) we have made. We have been truly lucky to see and experience some of the things we have and to meet the people we have, some of which we will hopefully stay in touch with ….and most importantly we made it through spending pretty much all day…every day together. Hopefully we will never forget this time – we shouldn’t as we have 7,500 photos to remind us!

One last note – some of you who have been reading this blog will remember that we said we were going to raise some money for the Cambodia Light Childrens Association (see link on right hand side) when we returned to the UK and that we were going to set ourselves a ‘challenge’ in order that we could raise lots of money – well a challenge we have set! We have both entered the Dublin Marathon on 29 October 2007 and will be running it for the CLCA. Chris has always ‘talked’ of doing a marathon so we thought this would give us both the incentive to put the hours of training in that is necessary to complete the distance.

Now just for the record – I am not making ‘excuses’ already (as Chris has kindly pointed out) but it is touch and go whether I will be able to run the Marathon in October as I have just been referred by my doctor to a foot specialist after experience pain in my left heel since we were in oz. So if the race against time with the treatment doesn’t pay off I will be finding something else or maybe a different marathon to enter to fulfill my part of the promise we made to each other.

Once we have a justgiving website up and running we will send out an email with the details and post an entry on this site – so watch your ‘in-box’ or this space!

Thankful we had sent our clothes shopping home whilst in Hoi An, we cruised through the 15kg weight limit check on the Air Asia flight from Hanoi to Bangkok. I am using the word ‘cruise’ very loosely as Chris had 0.1kg to spare and I had 0.4kg to spare. But thankful we were especially when we saw others before us having to pay hefty fines.

We were both excited during the flight to Bangkok….but it was not because we held particularly fond memories of Bangkok; in actual fact Bangkok had not endeared itself to either Chris of myself first time around, but quite simply because we would be checking into the Holiday Inn Hotel. We had decided from the very start of our trip that should the unlikely event of having some cash left at this stage in our travels occur then we would throw what little we had at upgrading to a hotel.

We had five days in Bangkok before our long-haul back to the UK was scheduled to leave and we were intending to make the most of it. We were planning to head North to the ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ and we had also been considering a visit to ‘Tiger Temple’ – a wat where the monks raise sick tigers and tourists can get up close and personal with the animals (although it is worth noting details of the ‘Tiger Temple’ do not feature in the lonely planet for fears that the tigers are in actual fact drugged). As it transpired we did not make it to either and for the first day we did not leave the hotel making good use of the gym, the swimming pool, the sun in the sky and rooom service. The rest of the week pretty much followed the lazy start it had kicked off with ensuring a stint by the pool to top up the tan before revisiting our favourite cheap restaurant and visiting a few places recommended to us by friends and family.

The only other plan we had for our last week was a bit of retail therapy. We missed out the shopping malls on our first visit as we did not wish to carry any new purchases however after checking BA’s weight limit – a whopping 32kg each until September we were planning to run wild picking up a few presents, some souvenirs and some cheap clothing. Well Chris did as planned and bought himself a number of t-shirts, jeans and trainers whilst I uncharacteristically could not bring myself to part with any cash.

Dan, our good friend from university who is now living in Sydney and has travelled extensively recommended that we visit ‘Bed Supperclub’ – a nightclub based in Bangkok’s Sukhumvit. So on our final night we headed to ‘Cabbages and Condoms’ restaurant which is a NGO supporting the campaign against AIDS. We sat outside amongst thousands of fairy lights and had quite possibly the hotest dish we have had in our lives!

Mouths burning we headed to a nearby bar for a few drinks to cool our mouths. We later made it to Bed Supperclub which is undoubtedly one of the best nightclubs we have ever been in. The website describes it as

‘a ‘dining in bed’ experience. Housed in a custom-built new building and set in a modern and futuristic all white environment, BED crosses the divide between dining and cutting edge entertainment. In BED you take your shoes off, lay down and you’re at home’.

……so we indeed took off our shoes and made ourselves at home! Chris was enjoying the music so much he could have happily stayed there until our fight left.

The journey back to the hotel was a little surreal as the tuk-tuk’s radio played Peter, Paul and Mary’s version of our blog title ‘We’re leaving on a jet plane’ quite fitting as later that day we would be coming to the end of our 11 month trip. In high spirits we asked the tuk-tuk driver if Chris could sit in the drivers seat for a quick photo before retiring for the very last time as travellers.

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